Grace Fox Big Band: Eleven O'Seven

In the long history of jazz, it is rare for a teenage musician to establish a big band, let alone lead one. In fact (historians will have to verify this), it may never have happened. One thing is certain—no teenage woman has ever formed a big band and become its leader. Until now. Meet trumpeter Grace Fox, a nineteen-year-old student at the Manhattan School of Music, founder and leader of the seventeen-member, all-female Grace Fox Big Band, which has recorded and released (as of March 2022) its debut album, Eleven O' Seven.

To stock the band, Fox scanned social media to find musicians of various ages and backgrounds from across the USA. As role models for the ensemble's vision, she used the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and the New York-based DIVA Jazz Orchestra. As composer and arranger, she employed the services of one Grace Fox. So, how did everything work out? The answer lies somewhere between pleasing and passable.

The band makes an auspicious entrance with Fox's bright and brassy "Right on Red" but fails to sustain the momentum or replicate the excitement on the half-dozen remaining numbers, two of which ("I Just Found Out About Love" and Janis Ian's "Stars") are sung by Fox's older sister, Alexis. Well, it is Fox's band and she may, of course, do as she pleases. That does not mean, however, that a listener must necessarily agree with her choices. That leaves five instrumentals, three by Fox and Miles Davis' "Gospel Interlude," which leads to Roy Hargrove's "The Gospel." There are rewarding moments on each of them, but too few to earn an emphatic endorsement. The hymn-like "Gospel Interlude" (solo by trumpeter Kellin Hanas) segues nicely into Hargrove's eloquent "Gospel," on which Hanas and alto saxophonist Veronica Leahy share solo space.

Speaking of soloists, they are perfectly capable but no more than that. Saxophonist Jade Elliott is showcased on Fox's "Echelon" (tenor sax) and "Sterility" (alto sax). "Echelon" is a sultry ballad with a martial midsection, "Sterility" a slightly more animated theme gently introduced by pianist Naomi Nakashini and escorted to its coda by blaring brass, measured reeds and an EWI. Even though Eleven O' Seven leaves ample room for improvement, it must be said that what Fox has done is exceptional. Nineteen- year-olds, male or female, simply do not go out and recruit big bands to write for and lead. While Eleven O' Seven is far from perfect, what it has in abundance is promise. Keep doing what you are doing, Grace. Music in general and jazz in particular could use many more enterprising young people like you. And do not fret about reviews that are less than completely laudatory and gushing. Time is your ally, and you may rest assured your time for more unreserved approval will come.

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